Bail plea of four accused in 2006 Malegaon blast case rejected

Mumbai: A special NIA court here today rejected the bail plea of four accused in the 2006 Malegaon bomb blast case, who had sought liberty after eight Muslim men accused in the case were discharged in April.

Special NIA judge V V Patil rejected the bail applications of Manor Singh, Rajendra Chaudhry, Dhan Singh and Lokesh Sharma who said in their plea that they were falsely implicated in the case and there was no evidence against them.

The defence lawyers argued that many things NIA claimed to have recovered from the accused were easily available in the market.

The prosecution, however, held that there was ample evidence against the accused in the case, which is very serious in nature and so they should not be granted bail.

In his order, the judge said "at this stage it appears to me that prima facie the evidence collected by NIA show that the accused along with absconding accused prepared bombs and planted it and in its explosion more than 31 people died and 312 innocent persons were injured."

Bearing in mind the nature of the crime and the charges levelled against the accused persons, they do not deserve bail", the judge said.

The bomb blast took place near Hamidia Mosque at Malegaon, near Nashik, on September 8. Bombs were kept on bicycles and they went off after Friday prayers at the Mosque on the occasion of Shab-e-Baraat.

Maharashtra Anti Terrorism Squad, which had first probed the case, arrested nine Muslim men on the basis of alleged links with banned Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), which was confirmed by CBI later. One of them died while the case was pending. Four others, including a Pakistani national, are absconding.

However, NIA took over the investigation after Swamy Assemanand said in his confession in another case about alleged involvement of Hindu right wing groups in the Malegoan blast case. Thereafter, NIA told the court that it had no evidence against the nine accused in the case.

The special court in April dropped charges against eight Muslim men in the case due to lack of evidence against them.